Team bus of once super-rich Anzhi seized due to unpaid debts

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala, once among the world’s richest soccer clubs, has seen its team bus seized due to unpaid debts.

Bailiffs in Anzhi’s home region of Dagestan say they took club vehicles, including the bus, to cover payments on a tax debt of more than 50 million rubles ($780,000).

That sum would have been pocket money for Anzhi back in 2011, when billionaire then-owner Suleiman Kerimov signed forward Samuel Eto’o on what was one of the world’s biggest-ever contracts.

Kerimov slashed the club’s funding in 2013 and Anzhi went into decline. The club was relegated from the Russian Premier League and dropped to the third tier due to financial problems. This season it risks relegation to the amateur leagues.